The first stage of the Galway City Water Conservation project, estimated to cost in the region of €800,000 and which will involve the installation of bulk water meters throughout the city, is set to begin at the beginning of next month.
Shareridge Ltd, based in Castlebar, Co Mayo, has been appointed by the Galway City Council to the Galway City Water Conservation Phase 2 project with the official signing of the contract taking place yesterday. The works, which will take between nine and 12 months to complete, will provide an upgrade and improvement of the water management system that will enable the local authority to effectively monitor water usage throughout the distribution network, improve reaction time to extreme weather events and other supply interruptions, as well as reducing water losses through improved leak detection and repair techniques.
The first phase of the works will involve the installation of more than 100 bulk water meters throughout the city and dividing the city water network into 80 areas; currently there are just four areas. Regarding the cost of phase one of the project, senior engineer with the water services Ray Brennan said that the installation of the meters on the existing water network, and the vital information that will be gathered, will result in savings being made later on, in particular reducing the amount of water that is lost, which at the moment stands at 50 per cent.
“Dividing the city network and installing the meters will lead to a better understanding of how water in the city is being used and distributed. It is vital to know this valuable information, what is happening in areas of the city, what is being used in each area, so that the council can then be in a better position to see where there is high usage, leaks, and have more control over distribution.
“We know that there are high levels of water in Galway which is unaccounted for, up to 50 per cent. From the Government’s point of view, the council has to tackle this. If we go looking for an upgrade for Terryland [Water Treatment Plant] for example, it is difficult to do that if there is still 50 per cent of water going missing. Therefore, it makes sense to get a greater understanding of the network because this will eventually lead to the running costs for Terryland decreasing as it will cut down on the amount of water disappearing. We won’t get the benefit instantaneously, but it will lead to a huge amount of water being saved, reducing the amount that disaappears from 50 to 20 per cent. We will have the vital information to know how much water will need to be produced over the next 20 years or so. Once the conservation project is done we will have a much better idea of what is required to run the city on a daily basis,” he said.
Mr Brennan explained that the project is split into three stages, the first being the installing of the water meters, the second is the identification of burst pipes and leaks and repairing these; it is believed that the second stage will begin almost immediately after the meters are installed. The third stage will involve the replacing of mains which have experienced significant bursts.
While the meters are being installed businesses and householders can expect to experience disruption, however the city council has vowed to do everything in its power to minimise this by keeping the public updated and confining the work to a minimum of two locations per week. Mr Brennan said: “Every single property can expect water outages. To help limit the disruption we have devised a comprehensive communications strategy where customers can log onto the council’s website to get daily updates, there will be advertising in the local media, and leaflet drops. We expect the shortages to be very short, a matter of hours, and a lot of the work will be done at night time. The council will do all it can to minimise the disruption.”
